Description: When did informed consent in human research become law in Canada? This is a difficult question to answer because the adoption of laws requiring and governing informed consent in Canadian medical research developed over several decades rather than during one moment in time. In this talk, Matthew S. Wiseman will explore the complicated history of medical research ethics in Canada during the early Cold War. Although the Nuremberg Code set a base international standard of ethical principles for human experimentation in 1947, medical scientists in postwar Canada performed wide-ranging experiments on soldiers in an extensive effort to advance military medicine and bolster the operational capabilities of Canada’s fighting forces. Raising questions about the history of human experimentation in the context of the Cold War, this research reveals the deep-seated (and troubling) military roots of informed consent in Canadian medical research.

Biography: Matthew S. Wiseman is an assistant professor (teaching stream) in the Department of History at the University of Waterloo. His research and teaching concentrate on the history of twentieth-century Canada, with special emphasis on the development of science and medical research ethics. He is the author of Frontier Science: Northern Canada, Military Research, and the Cold War, 1945–1970 (UTP, 2024) and co-editor of Silent Partners: The Origins and Influence of Canada’s Military-Industrial Complex (UBC Press, 2023). With an eye to understanding the social and political dynamics of science, Wiseman’s publications examine the complex dimensions of military- and state-sponsored research conducted at government, private, and academic institutions. He also studies gender equity in the professional scientific community and is currently writing two books, one on the history of military medicine in Canada and a second on the history of women scientists at the National Research Council.